Stress in english words introduction

Secondary stress refers to a type of stress that is weaker than the primary stress but is stronger than unstress syllable. The symbol ( ‚ ) is marked in front of secondary stressed syllable in a dictionary.
Unstress means the absence of prominence or in other words, the absence of loudness, length of duration and pitch height. There is no mark for unstress.

PLACEMENT OF STRESS

It is said that when native speakers of English encounter unfamiliar words, they can know how and where to place the stress correctly. Therefore there should be some rules that help learners of English understand where to place stress within English words. The following rules on stress placement are hoped to help learners of English pronounce English words more accurately. Please note that these rules may not be applicable to all the words in English, as there may be some exceptions.

1.) Two-syllable words

The rule for this is easy. If the first syllable is stressed, then the second syllable is unstress.
• primary + unstress (most unstressed syllables are weak syllables or have short vowel sounds)

e.g. ‘ whistle		‘ little
‘ wealthy		‘ happy
‘ body ‘ weaken • primary + secondary		‘ shorten
e.g. ‘ pas ‚time		‘ va ‚lue
‘ guide ‚line • unstress + primary		‘ guide ‚book
e.g. a ‘bove		re ‘place
be ‘long se ‘duce • secondary + primary		be ‘low
e.g. ‚un ‘fair		‚dis ‘arm